Hi! I'm Erik.

OK, it was sunday and I had nothing better to do

February 25th, 2018

On some phone models, a broken display also means that the touch functionality breaks. As a last resort, some people have attached a wireless mouse to their device as a temporary solution. But why wait for the display to break before attaching proper peripherals? Surely a mechanical keyboard would improve the user experience significantly! With a poor man's docking station - a USB adapter connected to a USB hub - you can get that proper PC feel and still be using your phone. (OK, it makes no sense, but still cool that it works.)

Mechanical yearly

January 07th, 2018

Mechanical keyboards have been all the rage for quite some time now (since the 70s?). One year ago, wanting to jump on the bandwagon, I treated myself to one. This although my regular $12 keyboard was working just fine, that a mechanical keyboard is rather expensive, and that I wasn't even very fond of the tactile feel - or noise - of a mechanical keyboard. But as a programmer, I do type a lot, and good tools would hopefully help me in my line of work. How it went? Read on for more. (Spoiler: it turned out well!)

Even more safe for work

May 26th, 2017

In the unlikely case anyone ever felt that the only thing lacking on this site was privacy, I just enabled SSL. Your browser should now indicate this site is secure. So have fun and enjoy the secure world of HTTPS!

Because more is moar

May 07th, 2017

While I'm mostly using fonts for icons these days, traditional PNG icons, which the Shiny Icon Maker produces, still have their uses. And to further increase the usefulness of the icon maker, I just added a quite a few new icons from different icon sets. You may now also filter the icons by name and icon set. Try it out!

Save the southpaws

March 29th, 2017

I have been considering getting another mouse to use with my left hand to relieve the right hand from some stress. And yes, that means I am not a left hander myself. I hope I am still allowed to write this review! While symmetrical mice are all around, finding a pure left handed design is easier said than done. Read on for my thoughts on the Razer DeathAdder - Left Hand Edition.

As good as new... still old though

January 04th, 2017

I have a 42" 42XV556D Toshiba Regza TV at home. While it started showing its age a few years ago, I rather keep using it a while longer instead of contributing to the local landfill. However, the power button just stopped working recently. Turned out fixing it is rather easy though, and a no-brainer considering the warranty expired a long time ago. Read on for a quick how-to.

Luigi says: Don't repeat yourself

August 04th, 2016

Just starting out creating a 2D game using Unity3D, I came across a simple problem: There seems to be no easy way to swap out the sprite in an animation (think: Luigi using the same animations as Mario). It may seem simple to just create a new animation, but with many different characters (sprites) using the same animation it gets old fast. Read on for a short explanation and some code.

Yes, we have entered baby territory

May 21st, 2016

For reasons that may be related to my absence from this blog lately, I found myself in a situation with a used baby stroller in need of repairs. The problem was that the breaks would not click into place. After looking into it, it turned out that it could be easily fixed with some spare parts bought online, plus some basic tools and, of course, my not-so-valuable spare time. Read on for a step for step guide.

Back to basics

September 05th, 2015

Super-simple fix here. I hooked up an external USB3 hard drive to my box, but although it was powered up, it did not show up in Windows. Missing drivers? Broken drive? Perhaps my Google-Fu was weak that day but I promised myself I would write a blog post once I had solved it. And it was extremely trivial: Turns out the USB3 controller was disabled in the mainboard (ASUS P8P67) BIOS. After enabling it, everything worked like a charm! And yes, it's weird how these low-level settings somehow manage to stay relevant even to this day. ;)

Construction complete

July 08th, 2015

It was time again for an overhaul. The new design uses fonts with higher legibility, and the layout should make navigation more easier. The responsivity has been improved and I hope the site looks as good on your device as it does on mine. ;)